‘These guys are the best paid around’

Civil servants vow to fight bid to curb their generous pay deals

● The full extent of how taxpayers pamper SA’s 1-million-plus civil servants has been laid bare in a detailed presentation on the runaway public sector wage bill that the government gave unions on the eve of finance minister Tito Mboweni’s budget.

The Sunday Times has seen a confidential document the government presented to trade unions on Tuesday during what insiders described as a “hostile” meeting of the public sector co-ordinating bargaining council.

At the meeting government representatives proposed cutting short a multi-year wage agreement, signed in 2018, that resulted in civil servants getting above-inflation pay rises while the public purse was shrinking.

The agreement has led to the salaries of civil servants almost tripling in some instances, with no corresponding rise in job level or productivity.

Mboweni, who presented the 2020/2021 budget this week, said the government wanted to get out of the 2018 agreement, which is due to expire next month, because it provided for pay increases of up to 3% above inflation and overshot budgeted figures by R30bn.

Mboweni said he wanted to trim the public sector wage bill by R160bn over the next three years.

The documents show that a government director on salary level 13 who was earning just under R550,000 in 2007 is now taking home more than R1.2m.

The salaries of low-ranking officials have also increased substantially during the same period, with mid-career civil servants at level 7 who were earning R151,000 in 2007 now being paid about R375,000, thanks to annual pay hikes that averaged almost 8%.

Labour economist Andrew Levy said public-sector salary hikes have been outstripping those in the private sector while productivity was not improving.

“There’s no question, these guys are the best paid around, if you look at a percentage year-on-year change … These guys are doing well,” said Levy.

“There’s no link in the public sector between pay and productivity. These guys are the crème de la crème, they are the labour elites and furthermore they never get fired.”

Among the other benefits and allowances paid to civil servants, at a cost to the taxpayer of R27bn a year, are those for housing, cellphone use and travel. Police and others working in high-risk environments get additional danger pay.

Government sources said a controversial benefit in the Treasury’s crosshairs was a “spousal housing allowance” whereby two married civil servants both receive a housing subsidy for the same home.

The allowance, once restricted to senior public servants, was extended to all levels in the last round of wage agreements.

Expanding the spousal housing allowance cost the government R407m in 2018/2019 and R1bn in 2019/2020 and is projected to be R1.2bn this year.

But labour unions have vowed to fight “with sweat and blood” to keep this allowance.

The Public Service Association (PSA), which represents more than 200,000 government workers, said it opposed any move by the government to pull out of the 2018 wage agreement or reduce benefits.

“It has always been discriminatory in the public sector where they are saying married couples get one housing allowance, especially those who are poor, level 1 to 10,” said PSA chief negotiator Ruben Maleka.

“When they employ people, they’re not saying get married, they employ individuals.”

Cosatu first deputy president Mike Shingange said on Thursday that it was mischievous of the government to try to cancel a signed wage agreement a few weeks before the final leg was implemented.

“It has never happened, even during the apartheid government by the way, that a signed agreement is reneged upon. We don’t expect it to come from a democratic government.”

He said the government was failing to lead by example.

“What do you expect the private sector will do when the government, people who make laws and are supposed to defend the law, treat the law like this? What do you expect is going happen in the retail sector, in the manufacturing sector? There’s going to be chaos of employers doing as they wish,” Shingange said.

Treasury director-general Dondo Mogajane has warned that failure to effect spending cuts could force the government to approach the International Monetary Fund with a begging bowl.

He asked labour to be “reasonable” because these were trying times for SA.

“They must understand we are in big trouble; if we don’t instil pain on ourselves someone is going to take pain on our behalf. Labour must demonstrate leadership.”

Mogajane said there would be another review of the Ministerial Handbook to reduce the benefits of ministers, including the sizes of official houses and staff complements.

“Government is serious about changing its regime, cutting the number of staff, cutting perks, benefits. We mustn’t only instil pain on the workers, we must instil pain on ourselves.”

Vukani Mbhele, spokesperson for the department of public service & administration, said they have begun engagements on the matter and will only comment in full once those engagements are complete.